Breakfast with I Love Lotus

Interview with Patricia Ramos Hernández, director of I Love Lotus

Can you explain the title? Is this a reference to an actual brand of condoms?
Previously I had another title, but it was a true condom brand and I didn’t want to have rights issues. That’s why I decided to invent a brand name that doesn’t exist. The story unfolding in a condom store and sex are two essential things in the short film; I always thought that title could be a good option. The lotus flower is often associated with sex and condoms, so I decided to combine it with “I love”, because this story is about love. There are many films with “I love” in the title, and in this case it is love to a flower that means love and protection.

What did you want to explore in the relationship between the protagonists?
I was interested in telling a story of love at first sight, fleeting but resounding. A relationship that happens in a forgotten corner of Havana. I wanted to play with the mistake. He wants her from the first time, and she apparently doesn’t care. But she gives in her body with an ease that I love, without regrets. He, on the other hand, is more tied to conventions. In the end, unevenly, love arises between them. Love and desire at the same time. Love that can never be distanced from sex, because it is an intrinsic part of it, of course.

Can you tell us about your background as a filmmaker?
I Love Lotus is my fourth short film, a format that I like very much and I do not wish to give up. In 2016, I premiered my first fiction feature On the Roof, with which I participated in more than 30 festivals and won approximately 20 awards, national or international. It is a movie of which I feel proud, as I am of I Love Lotus. I am so far the writer of all my stories. I really enjoy the writing process and how to later express it in images.

What are your future filmmaking projects?
This year I will shoot my next feature film. It’s called A Night with the Rolling Stones, and it’s a love story too, but the main characters are 40 years old. In the 41st Latin American International Havana Film Festival, last December, I got a special mention in a screenplay contest. It’s a film project for which I’m working right now on casting and location, and I am very excited about this project.

Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?
I think so. Short films allow you to explore stories, characters, certain languages ​​with greater freedom. Precisely because the format itself allows it. And it is fortunate that it is so.

I Love Lotus is part of International Competition I12.